Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol II (1901).djvu/57

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Coleridge
45
Colling

it had been commonly used by them since Sir Edward Coke, chief justice, 'took particular delight' in so styling himself (Campbell, Lives of the Chief Justices, i. 326). Coleridge presided in the queen's bench division for fourteen years, and died at his house, 1 Sussex Square, W., on 14 June 1894; he was buried at Ottery St. Mary on the 22nd.

Among the more famous trials with which he was connected as a judge were the Franconia case, in which his opinion as to territorial jurisdiction at sea within three miles of the coast subsequently obtained legislative ratification; the case of the Mogul Steamship Company, which deals with the right of combination among traders; Regina v. Foote, in which he held that the temperate expression of atheistic opinions, if it had been (as some authorities held) a crime, had ceased to be so; Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, the only case in which a sentence of death has been passed in the royal courts of justice; and Bradlaugh v. Newdegate, the most recent authority upon the law of maintenance.

Coleridge was tall and handsome in feature, and had an extremely beautiful voice. His language was refined and forcible, and no one could, on occasion, produce a greater sense of solemnity with less effort. His nature was receptive and sympathetic to an unusual degree. It was almost impossible to him not to agree largely with, the person to whom he happened to be talking, and many persons who knew him slightly were inclined to attribute to him an insincerity which was probably entirely foreign to his real nature. He had a marvellous store of anecdotes, which he related with great skill. An American who stayed with him as his guest is asserted to have ascertained that he told two hundred different anecdotes in the course of three rainy days, for the amusement of an ambassador who was confined to the house by a cold, and that none of them were tiresome. His kindness of heart and great sensitiveness made him a passionate opponent of vivisection for experimental purposes. He had a great love and wide knowledge of English literature, especially of the poetry and drama of the Elizabethan, and collected a valuable library, in which Elizabethan literature was well represented. Portraits of him were painted by E. U. Eddis and E. Matthew Hale, and an admirable sketch of him was drawn by the first Lady Coleridge for Grillon's Club.

Coleridge married, on 11 Aug. 1846, at Freshwater, Jane Fortescue, third daughter of the Rev. George Turner Seymour of Farringford Hill in that parish, and by her he had four children Bernard (now Lord Coleridge), Stephen, Gilbert, and Mildred, who married Charles Warren Adams, esq. Lady Coleridge, who was an accomplished painter, died on 6 Feb. 1878, and Coleridge married, secondly, on 13 Aug. 1885, Amy, daughter of Henry Baring Lawford, who survives him.

Coleridge published in 1870 an inaugural address to the members of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, and in 1887 an address to the Glasgow Juridical Society.

[Private information and personal recollections; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Stapylton's Eton School Lists; Foster's Men at the Bar; Burke's Peerage; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, ii. 331, viii. 350.]

H. S.-n.

COLLING, CHARLES (1751–1836), stockbreeder, was one of the earliest and most successful improvers of the breed of shorthorn cattle. Born in 1751, he was the second son of Charles Colling (1721–1785) by Dorothy Robson (d. 1779), and succeeded his father in the occupancy of a farm at Ketton, near Darlington, in 1782, shortly after a visit he paid to the well-known breeder, Robert Bakewell (1725–1795) [q. v.] 'It is generally supposed that the great lesson that Charles Colling learnt during the three weeks he spent at Dishley was the expediency of concentrating good blood by a system of in-and-in breeding. … What he really learnt at Dishley was the all-importance of "quality" in cattle, and he resolved to devote himself to the preservation and amelioration of the local cattle on the Tees and Skerne' (Bates, pp. 5–6).

On 23 July 1783 he married Mary Colpitts (b. 2 Feb. 1763; d. 25 April 1850), who was almost equally interested with himself in his breeding of improved shorthorns, and helped him greatly in his work. The first bull of merit he possessed was bought from his elder brother Robert [q. v. Suppl.] and was subsequently known (after its sale by Charles) as 'Hubback.' This bull had been mated whilst at Ketton with cows afterwards famous called Duchess, Daisy, Cherry, and Lady Maynard. One of Hubback's daughters produced in 1795, by another celebrated bull called Favourite, a roan calf, which grew to be the famous Durham ox.

At five and a half years of age this animal had attained the weight of 3,024 lbs., and was sold as a show animal for 140l. After five months' exhibition, its then owner refused 2,000l. for it, and for six years afterwards perambulated the country with it. A portrait of the ox, painted by J. Boultbee and engraved by J. Whessell, was published in March 1802, and dedicated